It’s a sunny March evening in the bustling
port of Los Cristianos on the Canarian island
of Tenerife, and the unmistakable summit of
Mount Teide, the world’s third largest volcano
looms large in the distance. This is the
scene from the top deck of the 7.00pm Fred
Olsen ferry as it departs for the less visited
island of La Gomera, 28km away. With our
important cargo of golf clubs stored safely
inside our hire car in the vehicle hold below,
it’s the beginning of a week-long trip by car,
ferry and plane, teeing it up on half a dozen
of the best tracks on La Gomera, Tenerife
and Gran Canaria.

Around 35 minutes later we arrive at the
sheltered harbour of San Sebastián, which
was the first Spanish settlement on La
Gomera founded in 1440 and now the capital,
with a population of only 6000 inhabitants.
It’s a laid back and likeable introduction
to the second smallest of the seven
main islands of the Canaries.

The light is fading by the time we roll off
the ferry and then drive up and down the
strikingly steep and snaking Carretera del
Sur road towards our bed for the night.
Located on the outskirts of Playa de Santiago
on the island’s south coast, the Hotel Jardín
Tecina is a unique 4-star tourist complex
that stands on a cliff overlooking the
Atlantic Ocean surrounded by verdant vegetation
with a multitude of vibrant flora such
as bougainvillea, hibiscus and jacaranda.
After a delicious buffet breakfast the following morning, we find ourselves at Tecina
Golf, a friendly and welcoming Donald Steel
design for golfers of all abilities, only a wellstruck
drive from the hotel. Grabbing a few
bananas from a bunch hanging outside the
clubhouse, we follow the green line of the
cart path that leads skywards – seemingly
forever – to the tee block of the opening
hole, a 420-metre par four.

From here, we get a real sense of what La
Gomera’s only golf course is all about. The
scenery is unparalleled, with spectacular
views of the natural beauty of the lush island
landscape, the Atlantic Ocean and 3718-
metre-high Mount Teide on neighbouring
Tenerife. What makes Tecina Golf so special
is that it plays like a ski slope, with the holes
zig-zagging back-and-forth while descending
a steep hillside towards the ocean.

Though perhaps not of championship
quality, Tecina Golf is an excellent introduction
to Canaries golf, providing golfers with
an experience of almost continuous descent
with constant sea views. Wearing shorts and
tee shirts with a slap of sunscreen, we smile
together in satisfaction as we hit our drives
on a mid-week morning, and think of all the
poor souls back in chilly England, fighting
the traffic on their commute to work.

It’s on our return journey back to San
Sebastián in the afternoon to catch the ferry
back to Tenerife, that we get to really
appreciate La Gomera’s volcanic origins and
dramatic landscapes - the result of frantic
geological activity that according to experts
stretches back some 10 million years. Since
then, erosion has painstakingly transformed
the surface grinding down hillsides and
mountains and carving out deep ravines
into the coastline.

La Gomera, like the other Canaries, is also
something of a Lost World due to its range
of exceptional plants with over 650 unique
species that grow only on the islands.
Thousands of cacti in all shapes and sizes
appear on hillsides, gardens, golf courses
and some plant species, such as dragon
trees, have remained largely unchanged for
millions years.

TENERIFE

Back on Tenerife, the largest island in the
Canarian archipelago, our home for a three
nights is the not too shabby Iberostar
Anthelia, in the upmarket area of Costa
Adeje on the island’s south coast. Situated
on the beachfront, between the beaches of
El Duque and Fañabe, this attractive and
elegant 5-star resort in a garden setting
offers top-quality facilities including two
superb outdoor pools, the Thai Zen Space
Spa, rooms with balconies and ocean views.

Tenerife has a total of eight excellent
quality golf courses open to the public and
the Costa Adeje makes a convenient golfing
base with Abama Golf, Golf Las Américas,
Amarilla Golf & Country Club, Golf Costa
Adeje, Golf del Sur, and Centro de Golf Los
Palos all within a 16 kilometre drive away.
The other two courses are further afield in
the north – Real Club de Golf de Tenerife
established in 1932 and Buenavista Golf
designed by the much-missed and muchloved
Seve Ballesteros.

Buenavista Golf is situated at Buenavista
de la Norte in the extreme north western
corner of the island and getting there from
Costa Adeje is all part of the golfing adventure.
The roads on Tenerife, just like on La
Gomera are often narrow, steep and undulating
and can take longer than expected to navigate, so its best to allow plenty of time
to get there, especially if like us you decide
to go the infamous Masca route on the TF-
436 from Santiago del Teide.

The road runs through the Teno Rural
Park, an unbelievably surreal setting with
extremely rugged terrain. If you go this way
(there’s an alternative way to come back),
don’t forget to take you travel sickness pills
first and buckle in for one of the world’s
craziest road trips with more twists and
turns than the back-nine at Augusta on
Masters Sunday.

One of the appealling aspects of golf is
that courses are often to be found in some
fabulous settings – and the scenery and
backdrop of Buenavista’s 18-hole, par-72
(6019 metres) layout certainly doesn’t dissapoint.
The course features six par-3s, six
par-4s and six par-5s, and Seve has used
the fabulous clifftop location to craft some
dramatic holes with five greens set tight to
the rocky coastline. A classic hole is the
221-metre par-three 15th with the Atlantic
crashing onto dark jagged rocks beyond the
green. While you play, keep an eye out for
Seve’s trademark in the form of an ‘S’
bunker on the par-five 10th hole.

Buenavista Golf offers buggy, trolley and
club hire, two practice putting greens and a
chipping area, and it’s well worth allowing
time for a pre-round coffee or post-round
beer from the clubhouse terrace with
impressive views over the course and
Atlantic Ocean. Buenavista may be a little
off the beaten track – but its well worth the
extra effort to include it on your golf schedule.
The third course of our golf trip is
Tenerife’s best – Abama, and a serious contender
for the Canaries number one.

Admittedly you need deep pockets to play
and consequently this Canaries jewel
recieves a reletively small amount of traffic,
but this all adds to the exclusive experience.
With a driving range to die for and tee
blocks that look good enough to putt on,
we know we are in for a treat.
This Dave Thomas design rambles over
6,271 metres of ever-changing terrain with
dramatic elevation changes, 22 lakes linked
by impressive waterfalls, white-sand bunkers and 25,000 palm trees. On the back
nine you play your way around the distinctly
ochre-coloured Moroccan inspired hotel,
starting with a superb par-5 played from an
elevated tee.

Abama is a serious test for club golfers
and we are both well over our handicaps
walking off the final green. If you can steer
you ball into the right positions, it’s the slick
and undulating Augusta-quality greens that
are the course’s main defence. But it doesn’t
make it any less enjoyable, the immaculate
conditioning of the course and the scenery
make certain of that, with most holes providing
fabulous views of the Atlantic and
the island of La Gomera.

The following morning we drop off our
hire car at Tenerife South Airport to catch a
flight to the last island of our Canaries golf
trip. At only thirty minutes, there’s is barely
time to buckle up the safety belts and review
the scorecards of our rounds played so far,
before the Binter Canarias plane hums low
over Gran Canaria’s arid volcanic landscape
and angles in towards the runway.

GRAN CANARIA

Experts rate the seven golf courses in Gran
Canaria as among the best in Spain – and
the layouts not only entertain and challenge,
but allow you to experience the island’s varied
and dramatic scenery in all its glory.
“Even though there has been a golf course
here since 1891, it’s only during the last five
years or so that golf course development
has really taken off,” says Pablo Llinares de Béthencourt, Managing Director of the Gran
Canaria Golf Association.

In a similar way to Tenerife, the majority
of Gran Canaria’s golf courses are situated
in the south of the island, all conveniently
within a 20-30 minute drive of each other.
Just like Tenerife, when it comes to accommodation
we are roughing it again, this
time at the 5-star H10 Playa Meloneras
Palace nestling in a peaceful beauty spot in
Meloneras facing the sea and in a great
location for accessing the five courses:
Lopesan Meloneras Golf, Maspalomas Golf,
Anfi Tauro Golf and Salobre Golf (South
and North courses).

Right next door to our hotel along
Meloneras Bay is the new Lopesan
Meloneras Golf. The course begins with a
front nine of fairly open and relatively forgiving
holes characterised by palms and
mountain views, and then gets progressively
more difficult entering the back nine
along the cliff tops. Nearby, is the excellent
Maspalomas Golf, a Mackenzie Ross design
surrounded by magnificent sand dunes,
protected as a nature reserve and home to
a variety of flora and bird life.

A bit further afield and taking full advantage
of Gran Canaria’s amazing geology,
Salobre Golf is a stunning place to play and
not to be missed. The two courses Sur and
Norte, make up the only 36-hole complex in
the Canaries and feature swathes of emerald
green fairways and greens in a desert
landscape of rock canyons and gullies dotted
with cacti. It’s the kind of environment
where you half expect to see the original
‘magnificent seven’ come riding over the
horizon on horseback as you tee off. After
playing a morning round on the superb and
more recent Salobre Norte course, we meet
Sergio Garcia look-alike Fernando Martinez
from Guest services. “I’m told I look like
Sergio many times a day,” he tells us with a
grin, as he drives us back to the clubhouse
for a 19th-hole beer.

Our final round is at Anfi Tauro Golf,
which along with Abama Golf and Salobre
Golf Norte makes up our Canaries top-3.
Designed by Robert Von Hagge, this
Arizona-style impeccably maintained PGA
Championship course is located among
rocky canyons and gorges, native vegetation, teeming waterfalls and glistening lakes
and offers a perfect contrast to the surrounding
volcanic mountains.

Anfi Tauro is one of those rare courses
that generate a genuine sense of awe from
one hole to the next for an entire eighteen
holes, creating an unforgettable round of
golf. The course is a dream for the golf photographer
and even the most inexperienced
snapper can’t fail to bag good a good image
here. One of the most photogenic holes is
the classic 209-metre par-three 6th, framed
on either side with swaying palms and a
pyramid-shaped rock as a backdrop.

In the island’s north are the other two
courses that make up Gran Canaria’s magnificent
seven. Real Club de Golf de Las
Palmas, near the island’s capital Las Palmas,
is Spain’s oldest golf club having being
founded in 1891. This strategic parklandstyle
Mackenzie Ross design has been cleverly
fitted into an area of just 375,000 sq
metres, spectacularly situated on the edge
of an extinct volcanic crater.

Rising Spanish star Rafael Cabrera-Bello
is a member of the club and he trains here
whenever he returns home. Although primarily
a members club, morning tee times
are available for visitors from Monday to
Friday and situated only a long putt away
from the first tee is the VIK Hotel Bandama
Golf, offering a comfortable base for the
two northern courses. The final Gran
Canaria golf course is El Cortijo Club de
Campo, an interesting design featuring six
lakes and 600 ancient palms trees. It hosted
the Spanish Open in 2002 and is conveniently
located close to the airport for that
final round before flying out…

PETER SWAIN’S
PROPERTY SPOTLIGHT

PUEBLO DON THOMAS

With majestic ocean views, and cunningly placed
fruit-salad landscaping – bananas palms, orange,
guava, tamarind, carob and papaya trees proliferate –
the Pueblo Don Thomas development is up on a hill,
overlooking the Tecina course on La Gomera.
It was established by Fred Olsen, the Norwegian
cruise ship boss, so not surprisingly many of its mostly
second-home owners are Scandinavian, although
Germans and Brits are also well represented.
Two-bedroom apartments start at €299,000
(£240,000). Those on the upper floor have balconies,
the ones underneath have gardens; both have high
spec bathrooms and kitchens. Larger 135m2 threebedrooms
apartments typically cost €387,000
(£311,000), with all having access to good-sized
swimming pools.

Three-bedroom villas are laid out over one or two
floors, come with their own private pools, and start at
€680,000 (£546,000). The two left overlooking the
golf course cost €780,000 (£627,000).

James Wyatt of Barton Wyatt, the Wentworth-based
estate agents handling sales to British buyers, suggests
a 5% discount is about all you can expect.

‘They’re not after bargain-hunters, they’re after the
right type. Anyway,’ he adds, ‘the recent depreciation
of the Euro has made prices for pound sterling buyers
10% cheaper than 12 months ago.’
The annual cost of golf membership for owners,
including the ‘Rights to Play’ or joining fee, is currently
€2,550 (£2,060).

The rather fine Hotel Jardín Tecina is a five-minute
walk away. Overlooking the sea, it has a cliff-side
lift down to the Playa de Santiago beach, a good
spa, fine restaurant, tennis and squash courts, a
magnificent garden plus a number of shops.
Rooms start at just €52.50 (£32) for half board
from jardin-tecina.com, and it’s all a 45-minute
ferry-ride from Tenerife.

www.bartonwyatt.co.uk

FACTFILE

GETTING THERE

Monarch operates year-round flights to Tenerife from
Birmingham, London Gatwick, London Luton and
Manchester airports with fares, including taxes, starting
from £58.99 one way (£99.99 return). Year round
flights to Gran Canaria are also available from
Birmingham, London Gatwick and Manchester airports
with fares, including taxes, starting from £62.99
one way (£124.99 return). From some airports such
as Manchester and London Gatwick, there’s the
option of flying into one island and out of the other.
For further information or to book Monarch flights,
Monarch Holidays or Monarch Hotels, please visit
www.monarch.co.uk

GETTING AROUND

Car Hire: www.hertz.co.uk

Ferries: Return car/passenger ferry trips between
Tenerife and La Gomera with Fred Olsen ferries leave
from Los Cristianos port, Tenerife: www.fredolsen.es
Inter-island Flights: Various flights between the
Canary Islands are available on the airline Binter

Canaries. www.bintercanaries.com

WHERE TO STAY

LA GOMERA – Hotel Jardín Tecina
www.jardin-tecina.com

TENERIFE – Iberostar Anthelia
www.iberostar.com

GRAN CANARIA – H10 Playa Meloneras Palace
www.h10hotels.com

GRAN CANARIA – VIK Hotel Bandama Golf
www.vikhotels.com

WHERE TO PLAY

LA GOMERA

Tecina Golf: www.tecinagolf.com

TENERIFE

Buenavista Golf: www.buenavistagolf.es

Abama: www.abamahotelresort.com

GRAN CANARIA

Lopesan Meloneras Golf: www.meloneras-golf.com

Anfi Tauro Golf: www.anfi.com

Salobre Golf (Norte & Sur):

www.salobregolfresort.com

Real Club de Golf de Las Palmas:

www.realclubdegolfdelaspalmas.com

WHEN TO GO

With an attractive climate and annual average temperature
of between 20 and 24 degrees centigrade,
the Canaries can be visited year round. High season
is during the UK winter and places usually get busy
from mid-December to February. It can be an advantage
to visit the Canaries during the UK summer
months when accommodation, flights and green fees
can be cheaper and more easily available.

GRAN CANARIA GOLF PASS

For guests who book rooms at hotels including H10
Playa Meloneras Palace, VIK Hotel Bandama Golf
and others (check website below), a 4 x green fees
pass (for any of the island’s golf courses) is available
to use from Ist May to 30th September. Cost is €160
(available from hotel receptions).
Visit www.grancanariagolf.comor
email: info@canariasgolf.org

FURTHER INFORMATION/ USEFUL WEBSITES

www.webtenerife.com

www.grancanaria.com

www.grancanariagolf.com

ATTRACTIONS
& ACTIVITIES

LA GOMERA: Explore the Parque Nacional de
Garajonay, a UNESCO World Heritage Site that contains
around 400 species of flora including the world’s
premier laurel forest. Get off the beaten track in the
northern part of the island with slow-paced rural villages
remaining relatively untouched by tourism.

TENERIFE: A visit to the Parque Nacional del Teide
(Spain’s favourite national park - pictured below) is a
must. Dominated by the 3718-metre-high volcano
Mount Teide, and featuring dramatic and otherworldly
landscapes, the national park was used as a backdrop
for scenes in the movie Star Wars. Drive to the picturesque
harbour town of Garachico in the island’s north
east to swim and snorkel in a series of unique natural
seawater pools, formed as the result of a volcanic
eruption in 1706 as lava cooled on contact with the
sea. Take a whale and dolphin-watching trip. Of the
seventy-nine species that exist in the world, nineteen
have been seen in the waters of the island, especially
in the channel between Tenerife and La Gomera,
though you are most likely to see pilot whales and bottlenose
dolphins.

GRAN CANARIA: Take a sunset walk among the
magnificent sand dunes at Maspalomas, protected as
a nature reserve and home to a variety of flora and
bird life. Contrary to popular belief, these 988 acres of
golden sand didn’t blow across from the nearby
Sahara Desert; they washed up from the ocean.
Explore the old town of Las Palmas and visit the historic
Catedral De Santa Ana (you can go up the tower
for city views), the emblem of the city since the
Spanish conquered the island over 400 years ago.
Sample the catch of the day in one of many family-run
restaurants on the seafront of the enchanting fishing
village of Puerto de las Nieves, with its characteristic
low white-and-blue houses. Culture vultures can
immerse themsevles in history at two excellent museums
in Las Palmas – the wonderfully atmospheric
Casa Museo de Colón where the main focus is the
discovery of America and the journeys of Columbus
and the Museo Canario showcasing in-depth coverage
of early Canarian history.

Feeling energetic? Book a surf lesson at the southern
end of Playa de Las Canteras (Las Palmas city
beach), and area known as La Cicer, and have a go at
riding some Atlantic waves with city views.